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EL SEGUNDO — So here come the New Orleans Hornets, that pesky, bottom-feeding team that nearly knocked off the Los Angeles Lakers a month ago before the 25-point comeback in the Bayou that sparked one of their few impressive stretches of this sad-sack season.

The harsh reality for this Lakers group that was so sure it would be resting players and plotting a championship strategy by this point: It's the Hornets tonight at Staples Center, at Portland tomorrow night, then home games against Golden State, San Antonio and Houston down the stretch; win them all, and — more than likely — the Lakers grab the eighth seed from Utah and the worst-case scenario of sitting at home in late April is avoided.

Or, as best put by a Lakers employee who wished center Dwight Howard well on his way out of the team's practice facility on Tuesday morning, "Remember now, there ain't no tomorrow," the man said to Howard before he entered his car. "You don't want to go fishin' early."

But even if the Lakers (40-37) aren't reaching for their tackle boxes by late April, there's a problem that has surfaced regarding their playoff premise that made so much sense back in late January when they were eight games below .500: getting in is no longer synonymous with surging. It was always a stretch to say the Lakers could get out of the first round if they got in, but it did stand to reason that the momentum of playing so well in the final few months could carry over at the perfect time. Mix together improved chemistry with a bit of good fortune, and one never knows what might happen in Laker Land.

Now, however, the air has been taken out of that balloon. Even if they get in, to put it in Danny Green parlance from the San Antonio guard's spot-on March 12 tweet, "Aint no1 scared of dem." While injuries to Kobe Bryant, Metta World Peace and Steve Nash have played a huge part down the stretch, the fact that the Lakers moved into playoff position far earlier than they ever imagined — March 10, to be exact — did nothing to help with their sense of urgency that has been so lacking all season long and they have won just seven of 13 games since then.

Predictably, the likes of Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni and Howard said all the right things on Tuesday, claiming that the confidence remains as high as ever. But after the Lakers' demoralizing loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, anyone with a pair of eyes and any Spidey sense at all can tell that's not the case.

"But again, we're not really looking at all there because we've got to get there. And it's not all in our hands right now, so we're just trying to keep getting better, keep getting guys more healthy…But I think everybody in the locker room is still pretty confident."

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Howard is still holding onto his championships hopes, and no one can blame a competitor for refusing to settle for less. But facts are facts, and while the Lakers had a worthy win against Memphis on Friday, there is no evidence that they could beat any of the top teams in the West more than once or twice in a series. They're just 3-14 against San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Denver, Memphis and the Clippers. They've even fallen short against lower-level playoff teams, losing to Golden State on March 25 and Milwaukee on March 28.

"We get in the playoffs, and there's no doubt in my mind, in any of our minds, that we can win a championship," Howard insisted. "It'd be stupid of me to sit here and say to you guys that, 'Yeah, we make it to the playoffs and we'll be out in the first round.' I have confidence in our team."

Asked if they had spent much time pondering the idea that they may not get in, Howard maintained his ultra-positive outlook.

"You can't think that way," he said. "We can't put our minds in a bad place. We have to keep them positive knowing that we come out and win tonight, anything can happen. But if we focus on all the negative things that could happen, then we're basically speaking it into existence that we're not going to make it. I'm not going to put that on myself and on this team."

It all makes for quality late-season drama, of course. But this story, and the Lakers, will likely be done before long.